Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows PT 1 reviewed (From Your Local Guardian)

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows PT 1 reviewed

3:02pm Tuesday 23rd November 2010

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Director: David Yates

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Nighy, Brendan Gleeson, Helena Bonham Carter, Jason Isaacs, Rhys Ifans

Certificate: 12A

‘Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Hogwarts anymore’ Yeah ok that’s a pretty lame opening to this review but it just goes to illustrate how things have changed in the wizard world over the last decade.

Deathly Hallows Part 1 is probably the scariest of the entire Potter franchise so far and has a more gothic feel to it. The audience know that this is new territory right from the opening line “These are dark times.” Uttered by Bill Nighy as the character Rufus Scrimgeour (I think it’s pronounced Scrim-jaw?) the Minister of Magic. Gone are the all the cosy dormitory fires the school chums the jolly japes and having a bit of a lark at the expense of poor old Professor Snape (Alan Rickman).

Fun and games have no place in this film. They’ve been replaced by pure evil and frightening scenes of violence and murder so be prepared to be shocked along the way. Having said that, good old Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) still has the odd wisecracking line adding some light relief along the way but even he isn’t immune to the odd mood swing.

In the latest saga Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has commandeered Lucius Malfoy’s Manor as the headquarters for his ‘Dark Forces’ and it’s here that they meet to plot not only the death of Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) but the oppression of all Mugglekind. Very soon Voldemort controls Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic and he unleashes the Death Eaters to find and destroy Harry and anyone who is protecting him.

Meanwhile ‘Mad Eye’ Moody (Brendan Gleeson) has organised his own gathering of wizards and friends of Harry to escort him to a safe house and there is a clever scene where we see multiple Harry’s created to throw the Dark Forces of his scent. This develops into an exciting chase sequence through the night sky with ‘dog fights’ on broomsticks and a motorbike.

It’s not long before Harry, Ron and Hermione (Emma Watson) are on their own and must search for the remaining pieces of Horcruxes which hold parts of Voldemort’s soul and destroy them.

I must admit I didn’t remember the Horcruxes but apparently they had been in some of the previous movies and at least one has already been destroyed by Harry? To my calculations that leaves four left to find in the Deathly Hallows 1 & 2.

And here lies one small problem with the film. The makers rely on the majority of the audience having already read all of the J. K. Rowling books or al least retained every reference in previous films. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 does stand alone as a thrilling action and adventure movie but if this is your first experience of a Harry Potter film then you may struggle to understand exactly what is going on.

To be fair it was always going to be difficult to please everybody with the size of the final chapter far too vast to squeeze into one film. Even then I found that the middle part of the film and the elongated scenes of camping trips in the woods did seem to go on too long and slow the pace down somewhat.

Overall, Director David Yates does a good job as a film maker and he had already cut his Potter teeth on ‘The Half Blood Prince’ and ‘Order of the Phoenix’. He definitely gets the best out of the cast who are a ‘Who’s Who’ of great British talent and the three young leads have all grown and developed into decent actors and you can sense a closeness between then, after all, they’ve spent the last ten years of their lives practically living with each other as the characters Harry, Ron and Hermione.

There is also a subtle suggestion of sexual awakening and there is a touching moment where Harry and Hermione share a dance while alone in the forest but deep down they both know that her love is growing towards Ron. By the way this scene was not actually in the book. Ok I own up. I didn’t read the last book but did do my research.

One of the scenes that stood out and set it apart from the other Harry Potter movies is when Hermione reads out the story of the Deathly Hallows which is visualised with a beautifully shot animated sequence. It has the feel of those great Eastern European fairytales that scared the hell of you as a child.

I liked this film and I will be sad when it the whole saga comes to an end in 2011. Mind you I do have an affinity with the Harry Potter movies. I was lucky enough to get behind the scenes of the ‘Chamber of Secrets’ as a chaperone to my kids back in 2002.

This film will take you through all the emotions, you’ll be thrilled, frightened, amused and you may even cry. Just make sure you visit the loo immediately before the film starts because it’s two and a half hours long plus thirty minutes of Adverts and trailers and that’s an emotion you don’t want. You have been warned.

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